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Definition of Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations intended to emphasize a point... read full definition
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations... read full definition
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements... read full definition
Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—The Children's Tantrums:
During the family road trip, the grandmother tries to convince a disgruntled Bailey to stop at a plantation she once visited as a kid, persuading his kids June Star and John Wesley to join her side by telling them romantic stories about the old house. After Bailey says no, O’Connor describes the children’s tantrums using hyperbolic language, as seen in the following passage:
John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat and June Star hung over her mother’s shoulder and whined desperately into her ear that they never had any fun even on their vacation, that they could never do what THEY wanted to do. The baby began to scream and John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney.
When John Wesley declares that they “never had any fun even on their vacation” and that they “could never do what THEY wanted to do,” he is clearly being hyperbolic—it is unlikely that he has never had any fun on vacation, and readers have seen for themselves that his parents do prioritize their children's wishes. The other hyperbole in this passage is the narrator’s description of John Wesley kicking Bailey’s seat “so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney.” This is not literally true, but meant to communicate the ferocity with which the child is expressing his displeasure.
O’Conner uses exaggerated language here in order to communicate the entitled behavior of the children, who, the story makes clear, do not have the best manners. It is notable, however, that it was the grandmother who riled them up—in this way, O'Connor suggests, the seemingly upstanding and moral elderly woman is no more moral or mature than the children.
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Explanation and Analysis—Snake Bite:
When describing the Misfit’s reaction to the grandmother telling him that he is “one of [her] babies,” the narrator uses a hyperbole, as seen in the following passage:
She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.
The hyperbole here—in which the narrator describes the Misfit springing back from the grandmother “as if a snake had bitten him” before shooting her—is meant to communicate how unsettled the Misfit is by the grandmother’s compassionate words and loving touch while he is holding a gun to her. To this point, she has been behaving how he likely expected an older Southern woman to act when threatened with death—pleading, screaming, and invoking Jesus’s name. He was not expecting her to offer him grace and kindness, and he recoils out of shock.
This moment is important in the grandmother’s moral development (it is the first time she has shown true care for anyone), but also for the Misfit’s. Though he does kill the grandmother after his snake-bite-like recoil, he takes off his glasses and cleans them, implying that he had let out a few tears over the course of their conversation, and later tells one of his henchmen that there's "no real pleasure" in what he just did.
Related Themes:
